"I didn't know I had an 8.90 because I couldn't hear anything out there. I was just looking for waves with scoring potential, so I was lucky that I got that wave," added Wright.

In the heat of the day, Julian Wilson celebrated a narrow win (0.10 points) over Kolohe Andino and Matt Wilkinson, despite not hearing the scores from the judges.

"It was a hard heat and hard to keep my strategy and keep control and positioning was difficult. My momentum is good, and last year I had a good result here getting a third, so I'm just hoping to build on that," concluded Wilson.

In the Women's competition, Sally Fitzgibbons the highest two-wave heat total of the competition so far, a near-perfect 18.37. She was the standout performer of the day alongside Silvana Lima, who surfed a Perfect 10 wave.